# What is Latchkey? > Latchkey is CI/CD analytics plus managed self-healing runners for GitHub Actions: see what your pipelines cost, why they fail, and run jobs on faster infrastructure that fixes transient failures automatically. Source: https://latchkey.dev/documentation/what-is-latchkey ## Summary - Latchkey = CI/CD **analytics** + **managed self-healing runners** for GitHub Actions; use either half independently. - Connects through a GitHub App on your **organization**; personal accounts are rejected automatically. - 30-day free trial on every plan, no credit card required at signup; runners from $0.0025/min with 2,000+ free minutes monthly. Latchkey does two things for teams that build on GitHub Actions: - **CI/CD analytics** Your workflow runs become cost, performance, and reliability dashboards, plus AI optimization recommendations you can apply as pull requests. - **Managed self-healing runners** Point a job at `runs-on: latchkey-small` and it runs on fast, ephemeral, isolated infrastructure that detects and fixes transient failures during the run. You can use either half on its own. Many teams start with analytics to understand their spend, then move their heaviest workflows onto Latchkey runners. The two halves are independent because they attach at different points. Analytics needs nothing beyond the GitHub App install: your existing runs, wherever they execute, stream in and become dashboards. Runners are adopted one job at a time by changing a single `runs-on:` line, and GitHub-hosted labels (`ubuntu-latest` and friends) keep working side by side while you migrate. ## How Latchkey connects to GitHub There are no agents to install in your repositories and no changes to your existing workflows until you choose to make them. "No agents" is worth spelling out. Latchkey learns about your pipelines from workflow events delivered to the GitHub App and from reading the workflow YAML under `.github/workflows/`. Nothing is added to your repositories, and your CI keeps running exactly as before. Latchkey does not read your application source code beyond workflow files, and it never reads your secrets or environment variable values. The full permission model is on [Security and GitHub permissions](/documentation/security-and-permissions). > **Organization accounts only** > Latchkey works with GitHub organization accounts. Personal GitHub accounts are not supported: if the app is installed on a personal account, the installation is rejected and automatically removed. ## How Latchkey compares to GitHub-hosted runners alone The analytics half works wherever your jobs already run. This comparison is about the runner half: what changes when a job moves from a GitHub-hosted runner to a Latchkey runner. Adoption is incremental by design: because both label families keep working side by side, you can move one job, watch it for a week, and expand from there. [Run your first job](/documentation/run-your-first-job) walks through the one-line change, and the [Managed runners overview](/documentation/runners-overview) has the full size and price table. ## What it costs to try Every workspace starts with a **30-day free trial**, and no plan asks for a credit card to start: new workspaces begin on the Launch plan automatically, and you change plans later from the billing modal's **Change Plan**. Plans start at $5/month, and every plan includes free managed-runner minutes each month (2,000 on Developer, 4,000 on Launch, 6,000 on Scale). The trial runs once per workspace; subscribing or changing plans later does not restart it. See [Plans and the free trial](/documentation/plans-and-trial) for details. ## What you need - A GitHub **organization** account (not a personal account). Personal-account installs are rejected and automatically removed, so this is a hard requirement, not a recommendation. - **Owner or admin permissions** on that organization, so you can install the GitHub App. If you have neither, ask an organization owner to install it or to grant you admin rights. - A **desktop browser** for the dashboard. The Latchkey dashboard is desktop-only today; mobile and tablet browsers are blocked after sign-in. [Notifications](/documentation/notifications) by email, Slack, and push keep you covered away from your desk. ## Choose your path - **I'm evaluating Latchkey** Start with exactly what the GitHub App can read and change, then compare plans and trial terms. - **I'm ready to set up** The Quickstart takes you from sign-in to a working dashboard in about five minutes. - **I'm adopting runners** Sizes, prices, what makes managed runners different, and what you need before your first job. - **I'm troubleshooting** Symptom-by-symptom fixes, from queued jobs to empty dashboards. ### What is Latchkey? Latchkey is two things that work independently: CI/CD analytics for GitHub Actions, and managed self-healing runners. The analytics half shows what your pipelines cost and why they fail. The runner half executes jobs on faster infrastructure that repairs transient failures during the run. You can adopt either without the other. ### Do I need a GitHub organization to use Latchkey? Yes. Latchkey connects through a GitHub App installed on an organization, and personal accounts are rejected automatically at install time. If you work in a personal account, create a free organization and transfer the repository into it before installing. ### What does it cost to try Latchkey? Every plan includes a 30-day free trial with no credit card required at signup. Runners start at $0.0025 per minute, and each plan includes at least 2,000 free runner minutes a month, so a trial usually costs nothing at all. --- Latchkey runs CI/CD that repairs its own failures. Agent entry points: https://latchkey.dev/agent.txt, https://latchkey.dev/openapi.json, https://latchkey.dev/llms.txt